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Yunho considers himself a lucky guy. The kind that would accidentally buy a winning lottery ticket lucky.
He’s dodged failing grades and falling plant pots (surprisingly at the fault of Seonghwa, who was launching a folder at San; so maybe it was San’s fault), and sometimes if he got really lucky, he’d get some stuff conveniently handed to him right when he needed it. He whisked past life with something good falling out of the sky every once in a while.
Like that I.T. guy he passed on the way up to his office today, who handed him a free cupcake simply because Yunho picked up his wallet. And Mingi.
Especially Mingi.
Hence why now he’s on the floor staring up at the other hovering inches above him and a dull pain on his lower back.
If he wasn’t hyper aware of the arm next to his head and Mingi right on top of him, he would make a comment about the cliche cheesiness of this whole situation, but alas Yunho is a weak man with his heart going out of control while pinned under Mingi on the dirty office floor. To his credit, Mingi looks just as shocked too, with pink dusting his cheeks and eyes blown wide at the situation.
“Do you mind?” Yunho gasps out eventually, still grasping on the papers he had in his hands before Mingi fell on top of him.
Now, it’s not as if Yunho and Mingi are complete strangers. In fact they’re declared work husbands and would have frequent lunch dates even when they still had a significant amount of files to go through. Yunho would call them something like really close friends.
“Oh, yeah. Um, sorry?” Mingi scrambles upwards, averting his eyes as he flattens out the wrinkles in his dress shirt. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah! Yeah.” Yunho straightens and coughs, wincing as his back cracks. “Why…were you…Where did you fall from?”
Mingi snorts as he collects some of Yunho’s papers off the floor, cheeks still slightly flushed but otherwise visually unbothered. On the contrary, Yunho is probably having a heart attack right now, but he gets to his feet and helps anyways.
“I was hanging up the lights. Lost balance and fell.”
“So you aren’t an angel after all,” Yunho jokes, shuffling his papers awkwardly. “I was going to ask if it hurt falling from heaven.”
“I am an angel,” Mingi responds sulkily, moving his hand away when Yunho goes to pick up the paper he was about to pick up. “But unfortunately I can’t leave you here to suffer alone.”
Cue Yunho’s stomach exploding with a sheer amount of panicked confetti and confused butterflies. It’s not so much of a compliment at all, but the thought of Mingi wanting to spend time with him instinctively making him shiver a little in the middle of his task. Fortunately, Mingi doesn’t seem to pay any heed to the brief pause that extended after his comment and continues to shuffle around and collect the documents.
“W-well that’s dumb,” Yunho manages to get out. “Since you are the reason for my suffering.”
Angry sputtering follows his statement and a heavy smack that lands on his arm from Mingi’s thick stack of papers, and he laughs as he ducks to the floor to avoid the second hit.
“You still up for lunch today or are you helping set up?” Mingi asks as he extends a hand to help him up when they finish collecting the documents, not before landing another hit to his head. Yunho grabs it graciously and stands up again, dusting his pants and taking the papers that Mingi passes him.
“Lunch is fine, but what am I setting up for?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t get the email about the Christmas party,” Mingi sighs, walking with Yunho back to his cubicle. “Do you at least know who you have for secret santa?”
“I didn’t receive the mail for secret santa actually,” Yunho mumbles, disheartened. “I was excited about it too.”
The company’s infamous secret santa gift exchange was arguably one of the best bonding ideas that management came up with. This year, however, it’s limited to each division due to an unfortunate incident where a reindeer barged into the CEO’s office last year. And the fireworks that went off in the advertising department from the rival social relations division due to their ongoing prank war. Maybe also the silly string explosion San sent to his secret santa that had the janitors scrubbing for months at the carpet. To be honest, Yunho wasn’t sure why they hadn’t implemented the “within your division” rule until now, considering the amount of damage over the years, but it’s also disappointing that he couldn’t pull anything on the other departments anymore.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” comforts Mingi, laying a hand on his shoulder and sending shivers up his spine again. “There’s still several days, so maybe you can check with Jongho to see if he has someone for you?”
“He’s coordinator this year?” Yunho perks up slightly. He knew the kid quite well, which means it wouldn’t be as awkward begging for a secret santa giftee days before Christmas. Mingi nods.
“Yeah, I wanted to help him learn some names,” Miingi affirms, sticking his hands casually into his pockets. “He’s still a little shy, but hey! We made progress.”
Mingi isn’t really wrong for that, considering Jongho had only started working for a few months. It’s cute how incredibly attentive Mingi was, with mostly everyone including Yunho forgetting that Jongho is relatively inexperienced even though he sees the younger scrambling about the office with his hair sticking up in all directions almost daily. It’s no wonder Jongho kept close to Mingi despite the other being his immediate superior. God, Yunho’s chest is going to burst open.
“Hey! Mingi! I need help over here!” Someone shouts across the office. Yunho turns to see Wooyoung tangled in reindeer lights, struggling to stabilize himself on the stepladder from what he could see over the cubicles. He looks ridiculous, with one leg sticking out and arms outstretched for balance. Yunho couldn’t help but pull out his phone and start filming the scene to send to the group chat, and Wooyoung lets out a loud yell of indignation followed by threats to kill him.
“Should I go help him or leave him?” Mingi whispers between laughs, and Yunho snickers.
“I don’t know,” Yunho muses, a devilish smile stretching over his face. “He looks kinda nice like that.”
“If you don’t get me out right now, I swear to god —” Wooyoung screams. Unfortunately all of them were there rather early and virtually no one else was in the office yet. Poor Wooyoung might just be stuck there until people start coming in. “I’ll start yelling your secrets!”
“Ah fine, fine,” Mingi yells back, “Coming!” Then he turns back to Yunho and smiles. “Catch you at lunch.”
Yunho watches as Mingi head over with complacent outstretched arms and runs before he actually faints from the amount of blood rushing to his cheeks. He makes a decision of hurrying back to his own cubicle to set down his papers before heading to Jongho’s. It’s not the best situation, but he could thank his luck for at least being able to have someone as a secret santa giftee. Passing by his computer, he decides to check his email first to confirm he didn’t receive anything.
That leads to his newer predicament, and boy is he fucked. Completely utterly screwed.
In bold letters in his inbox was the secret santa mail Jongho had sent him, the message exactly on the date and time they were supposed to receive it. Now, it would be okay if it were just that, but the moment Yunho opens the mail, instead of the complete christmas-crazed joy at having a secret santa giftee, he crumbles into his office chair.
You are giving to: Song Mingi
If that alone didn’t make his mind set off into panic mode, the next line definitely did.
Gift preferences: Surprise me ;)
Yunho absolutely despises Song Mingi. What kind of preference is “ Surprise me ”? It’s like asking for a shitty gift if it were any person who didn’t particularly care much about what their giftee thought about them, and while it’d probably wouldn’t be such a big deal with anyone else in the department, Yunho cannot mess this gift up.
He didn’t know how he missed the mail, considering it was marked as read, and he’s quite certain if he had seen that Mingi was the person he was giving the gift to he really wouldn’t forget it. Contrary to popular belief, however, he does not hold any type of feelings for that certain blonde.
He does. Kind of, but not really.
It’s perfectly safe to say that he holds particular… affections for Mingi. That’s fine, Yunho is perfectly ok expressing that towards the other. He does it almost daily, in fact, and he’s fine with it. Emotionally? He’s already past that barrier. Physically? He likes hugs anyways, and Mingi gives great hugs. Now if it comes to him expressing his feelings verbally, however? It becomes real.
It becomes so real to the point that he has to rethink their first meeting on their first project together. How shaking Mingi’s extended hand caused heat to immediately rise to his cheeks and alarm bells to go off inside his head screaming “Pretty man! Pretty man!” and slowly spiraling into incessant screaming when the other introduced himself with a smile.
The point is, he does not harbor a most likely one-sided crush on his coworker. At least on the verbal aspect.
Somewhere within his daze, he hears a text ping on his phone , and he searches blindly for the source upon his desk, his head still reeling.
It was Jongho apologizing profusely over a series of texts and informing him Mingi told him what happened. Yunho quickly sends back a simple text informing Jongho of what happened and promising the younger a slice of cake for compensation. Jongho once again apologizes, his text very obviously still a little sullen, but otherwise less frantic than before. Putting down his phone again, Yunho melts into his chair and wishes the gods would send down just a hint of what Mingi would want.
His mind wanders as he rubs his forehead, ears growing hotter just thinking about Mingi asking Jongho for his secret santa. That man is so intolerably kind sometimes it makes his heart hurt.
Oh god. Oh no. So maybe he isn’t emotionally ready for this whole thing yet, but he sure as hell is going to pretend he is.
Now to find the perfect gift.
____
At three a.m. the next morning, Yunho has a mental breakdown in the midst of his four layers of blankets and calls Hongjoong in hopes of moral support.
“Hongjoong, what the fuck do I do,” he whispers viciously into the brightness of the screen.
“You go the fuck back to sleep that’s what you do,” grumbles his friend groggily on the other side. “Why are you even awake?”
“Don’t be mean,” He huffs, tucking his legs closer to his chest. “I just wanted to talk to you…but also I need your help.”
A quiet “thought so” could be heard from the other end, but Yunho chooses to ignore it.
“Look, you can’t tell anyone,okay? It’s like, really important and honestly you’re better at this whole thing than I am.” A brief pause. “You can’t make fun of me either for this, but it’s about Mingi—”
“Jesus Christ, is this about the secret santa thing you were talking about yesterday?” He could hear the exasperation coming from the other’s muffled voice
“Yes. Look, but—”
“Yunho, I love you, but can you have your gay crisis later so I can sleep?”
So much for moral support.
“This is important , Hongjoong,” Yunho hisses under his pile of blankets, his breath fogging up the screen. “He said to ‘surprise him’ and I don’t know what that means. What if he has the things that I’m gonna buy him?”
“I am not going to think about your crush with you at three in the morning,” Hongjoong argues back, “Can’t you just ask San what he likes? They’re like best friends anyways.”
“But San is gonna know who I have,” whines Yunho, kicking his legs out. He really didn’t need San figuring out his feelings for Mingi and potentially interfering just as Hongjoong once tried to do.
“He’s going to have a clearer idea of what Mingi likes though,” Hongjoong points out blearily, his voice slowly fading in and out. “God, if you want my help I’ll just say to give your lover boy a mistletoe and a surprise kiss or something.”
Yunho mulls over the proposition, whipping out a mistletoe and possibly getting to kiss Mingi; maybe even having a kiss gifted back to him. An inhuman squeal leaves his lips as he curls in on himself just from the sheer thought of the other returning his unmentionable feelings.
“Please, just confess. You are so embarrassing.” Hongjoong’s disgruntled voice passes over the receiver, hanging up before Yunho could respond.
Recovering from his chest clenching euphoria, he lies there, staring at his darkened phone screen, entertaining the thought of confessing to Mingi. It’s not the worst idea Hongjoong has come up with, and it could get something off his chest before New Years. The whole thing could really go one of several ways, but honestly, if it all goes south, he still had time to get hung over at all the parties people are going to be throwing.
There’s no downside unless he counts the possible ice cream carnage that could come after.
The current issue still stems from the fact that Yunho does not know what Mingi wants for Christmas despite being rather close with him. He never went over to Mingi’s place either, with most of their impromptu movie “dates” ending up either at Yunho’s place or a movie theater. If he asks Jongho, it would probably yield better results than if he were to ask San, but then again he isn’t all that sure that Jongho wouldn’t bring it up with the other considering it is a weird ask.
He ends up asking San despite his brain telling him not to.
“A gift huh?” San says, eyebrow raising and lip curling deviously. “And this is for Mingi?”
“Yes,” Yunho groans, burying his face into the dirty break room counter. “Just tell me what he likes. Please .”
This back and forth has been going on for what seems like hours now, and Yunho’s disgusting coffee is getting cold.
“Maybe.” San purses his lip as if in deep thought. “You should confess to him.”
“San, please, I already said I’m considering it.” He just wanted his suffering to be over with.
“I don’t know. You should be certain about these things y’know.” San titters, tapping his chin with his finger before taking a sip of his coffee. He’s definitely enjoying this. “My ideas are precious, and I don’t just give them out for free.”
Yunho lets out another self-pitying moan as he ignores the stickiness of the counter top while trying to fuse into the surface so he wouldn’t have to suffer this fate. He really should’ve just risked it and asked Jongho instead.
“Why is Yunho eating the counter?”
Yunho looks up at the sound of the break room door opening and winces at the feeling of his skin peeling off the counter top. Yeosang walks in decked out quite festively with a Santa hat clip in his hair and bells dangling from his ear. It’s quite a spectacle, but quite normal considering the man is amazingly invested in holiday celebrations.
“San is being a little bitch,” Yunho states without missing a beat.
“You’re being a little bitch,” sniffs San in retaliation. “Just confess already.”
“Ah, so this is about Mingi. ” Yeosang nods in understanding as he pulls out one of those sickly sweet Starbucks frappuccinos from the fridge. “Does this have something to do with the secret santa exchange?”
“How?!” Yunho slams his hands against the counter, narrowly missing his long-forgotten coffee cup. “Did Hongjoong tell you? Be honest.”
“Well, he complained about being woken up at three today,” Yeosang answers, not paying attention to the two of them at all. “Maybe mentioned some things, but it’s still pretty obvious.”
“See?” San throws up his hands. “Just confess through your gift!”
All of his friends are against him. Yunho lets himself face plant back into the counter.
“You know, if you need a gift idea I suggest you make something yourself,” Yeosang suggests thoughtfully, leaning against the fridge. “I mean if you want to give him something he doesn’t have, wouldn’t making something be the best bet?”
Yunho gasps, abruptly straightening up again. “You’re a fucking Christmas miracle, Yeosang.”
“It’s not Christmas yet,” Yeosang replies nonchalantly, taking another quick sip of his holiday frappuccino. A small smile can be seen above the rim of the bottle.
“Hey, I was helpful too!” San pouts, crossing his arms across his chest. “I was…going to say the same thing.”
Pointedly ignoring him, Yunho gives Yeosang a high five over San’s head. San lets out an annoyed whine and grabs Yeosang’s hand away from Yunho’s, and Yeosang gives Yunho a somewhat apologetic glance as he proceeds to comfort the other and patting his back. Yunho makes a quiet exit before San could turn around and bother him further, mouthing at Yeosang to text him later as he slips out the door.
____
With only several days left before the gift exchange, Yunho decides it would be best if he focused all his energy in making the most perfect, goddamn gift for Mingi. Regretfully, he had to cancel his lunch dates with Mingi and spend most of them doing arts and crafts with Yeosang and occasionally Seonghwa, who drops by every once in a while to comment on their work.
To his own regret, he decided to knit Mingi a scarf. Knitting of all things.
Yeosang, for all that it’s worth, seems to be having fun with all the Youtube tutorials they’ve been watching. After the first day, the blonde already knitted a scarf and a little friend, and was now on his second scarf as Yunho struggles with the one-third of his scarf he painfully got through.
“What the fuck is this!” Yunho falls backwards on the heated floor of his apartment and bats at the other’s leg for attention. “Please help me, Yeosang. Please.”
“No,” Yeosang hums, continuing his meticulous knit job. “It’s your gift to Mingi. You said you wanted to make a personal handmade gift, and if I help it’s not personal anymore.”
“I regret everything I said about you being a Christmas miracle,” Yunho sighs, letting the warmth of the floor seep into his back and wrap around him. “My scarf looks fucking terrible!”
He sits up and holds out his scarf, eyes peering perfectly through a section of his completed knit work. The hole is huge , and that’s not even the only hole on his lopsided, unfinished scarf. Yeosang looks over and immediately turns his head to hide an audible snort, his hand coming up to cover his mouth.
“I-it’s not the worse,” Yeosang manages to get out before another laugh leaves his mouth. “It’s the thought that counts anyways.”
“See! Even you can see that it’s bad!” Yunho cries as he drags himself on top of Yeosang. “Please~ the gift exchange is in two days.”
“It’s okay.” Yeosang pats him reassuringly, focusing back to his task, his cheeks puffing slightly in concentration. “The holes make it look handmade.”
Yunho sighs again for what feels like the millionth time this afternoon and lays back onto the floor. There’s no way he’s going to complete the scarf and he is not about to give Mingi a half-finished scarf that looks more like a yarn coaster than anything.
It’s almost frustrating to watch his lack of progress over the span of days. With him deciding to attempt to knit small hearts after watching one of the videos Yeosang recommended to him, it took him so much longer to complete only a little portion of his scarf and probably impeding his progress in the process. Yunho huffs, sending a half-hearted glare at Yeosang before pressing play again on the Youtube video.
“Next, repeat step three until you reach your desired length–”
What the fuck was step three? And is he out of yarn?
“Yeosang, I’m out of yarn.”
“Mhm, go buy some more then.”
“Can’t I use some of your yarn?” Yunho looks over Yeosang’s shoulder and sees a bag full of yarn slowly being whittled away by Yeosang’s fast fingers and knitting needles.
“No. I’m using all of this,” Yeosang states, hand not stopping while watching his own Youtube tutorial. “The store isn’t that far.”
Yunho grumbles vehemently but doesn’t argue further, both from exhaustion and a slight endearment at watching Yeosang being so invested in his project. He heads out dejectedly, pulling on his thick puffer jacket and a beanie, hoping the snow didn’t delay his trip for too long.
Fortunately, he found a taxi relatively quickly and made it to the art store with snow barely getting onto his skin. His breath fogs in front of him as he sticks his hands into his pockets, regretting not wearing his gloves for the trip. The decorations around him gleam in the white haze of snow, reindeers prancing on rooftops and multicolored bulbs hanging on the bare branches of the tree lining the road. People mill around buying last minute Christmas presents, cheeks and noses bitten red by the chilly air and tired eyes glowing with a youthful innocence once more.
Pushing his way into the store, he sighs in relief at the warmth once more returning to his fingers. The employees greet him with a customary smile to which he replies with a small nod and smile of his own. It’s honestly all a capitalist ploy, Christmas, but it’s always nice to see people revert back to a childish happiness that has been lost through the toils of the year.
“Yunho? Hey!” Oh god.
“Oh, hi Mingi!” Yunho laughs awkwardly, taking out a hand to wave at the other he was so desperately trying to avoid. He considers ducking behind a shelf, but clearly that wasn’t happening. His luck is running out by the second, and this is exactly what he didn’t need right now.
“You look cute– I mean nice– I mean—” Mingi fumbles through his words, scratching at his head. “Anyways, haven’t gotten much time to talk to you recently. Are you…busy right now?”
“No, not now. I’ve just been working on some stuff. I don’t mean to ignore you or anything,” Yunho replies, his ears growing hotter by the second as he tries to look at anywhere but Mingi.
“Ah, okay…” An unfamiliar awkward silence stretches between them. Yunho wants to die.
“So! Erm, what are you up to?” A voice in his head that sounded strangely like Hongjoong snickers at his flailing attempts to save the situation.
“Just, uh, hanging around. Normal stuff. Mhm.” Mingi nods, eyes curving into a crescent smile that made Yunho’s heart beat out of his chest despite the strange tense atmosphere surrounding them. “You– did you want to be alone right now or–”
“No! You’re fine!” Yunho half-yells, hand instinctively shooting out to grab Mingi’s arm. “We can talk now since we haven’t had our lunches together recently?”
He can hear Hongjoong’s voice in his head again just laughing at him being an idiot.
“S-sure!” Mingi nods, looking surprised and elated to be invited along. “Are you getting anything here?”
Fuck, he really didn’t think this through.
“Just some yarn,” he answers truthfully, praying that Mingi wouldn’t ask any more questions.
“Into arts and crafts now huh?” Mingi teases, eyebrows wiggling. Yunho laughs at his expression and allows himself to relax as they continue into the store.
They browse through the aisles together, Mingi filling Yunho in on the various things he missed out on during his rush to complete his gift. It was quite liberating to hang out with Mingi after a long while of slaving over a stupid scarf. It takes several more aisles before Yunho realizes that they’re linking arms, and he almost instinctively pulls away, his stomach crawling up his throat and his ribs shattering from the heavy beating from his heart. He quickly ducks down and peers at the bottom shelf, pretending to have seen something.
“Huh? Did you see something?” Mingi kneels down next to him, leaning in close and making Yunho’s entire body heat up more.
“I-I thought I did,” Yunho replies, trying his best to keep his voice steady. “Let’s go now.”
He stands as fast as his wobbling legs would let him and hurries forward, leaving Mingi behind.
“Hey! Hey, wh- wait for me!”
The yarn ends up being the next aisle down, and Yunho tentatively asks Mingi which color he liked best, hoping that the other wouldn’t connect the dots and figure out that Yunho was making something for him . Mingi picks a navy color which fortunately matches with the cream white the Yunho has been working with. Looking up at him though, Mingi looks rather disturbed by something, a faint twitch of his lips and a slight downward turn of his brow becoming more and more prominent as Yunho hands him several balls of yarn.
Great, you’ve made him uncomfortable , Yunho thinks as he pays for the yarn, thanking the woman behind the counter and complimenting the cute mistletoe clip she has in her hair. She blushes and thanks him, and he turns to see Mingi watching them idly on the side.
“Can I come over?” Mingi suddenly asks out of the blue as they head out into the snow again. He isn’t looking at Yunho at all, but it gives Yunho the time to appreciate his visage against pure whiteness.
“C-come over?” Yunho hesitates, panic welling inside him as he remembers Yeosang sitting cross-legged on his floor with both their knitting tutorials open and his gift, regardless of how bad it looks, laying out in the open. “Um-”
“I…I’m just curious? About what you’re making?” Mingi mutters, still not facing Yunho. They’re standing under an overhang and waiting for a taxi to make an appearance on the busy street. Small snowflakes land upon Mingi’s lashes, and Yunho is struck silent with awe, almost forgetting to answer.
“Maybe next time?” Yunho blurts out quickly, his hands beginning to shake both from the cold and from sheer nerves. “I, uh, I have someone over right now.”
That clearly wasn’t the right answer, considering Mingi’s posture obviously deflates and his continued refusal to look at Yunho. Yunho wants to scream. This time the silence between them is filled by joyous Christmas music and the soft hum of car engines.
“Ah, that's okay,” MIngi says finally, a small smile dancing delicately on his face. The snow and the lights and the small puff of breath that leaves between his lips sucks the air out of Yunho’s lungs. “Hopefully next time then. See you at the Christmas party.”
And then Mingi departs, leaving Yunho with not much more than those words and a heavy feeling settling onto his chest. Yunho returns to his apartment with his head swirling and snow soaking through his beanie, several balls of yarn in his hands and Yeosang finishing up a second scarf.
____
Yunho’s scarf is a complicated work of art. A very airy, kind of crooked work of art that probably won’t function as it’s meant to. It’s also very unfashionable despite the perfect pairing of colors, and after numerous efforts to make it look somewhat cute, the patterns on the ends of the scarf still ended up looking more like the small dust balls from Totoro rather than the intended small black hearts due to Yunho’s absolutely terrible knitting skills.
It’s too late for Yunho to ask Yeosang to make him a new scarf, not like the other would’ve done it anyways, but any attempts to bribe the blonde to give him one of his already completed creations comes up dry too. He could only sigh and fold Mingi’s scarf as neatly as he could before tying it up with a red ribbon and stuffing it into his work bag along with a small note wishing the other a Merry Christmas.
The office is warm and lively when he steps in, people in Santa hats and red and green milling about with full cups and relaxed smiles on their faces. A tall Christmas tree stands in the corner, decorated in silver and red with candy cane dripping from its branches.
Yunho stretches his neck above the crowd as he searches for company, feeling quite out of place with only a small snowflake clip pinned in his hair, and he manages to spot Seonghwa hanging around with a big Santa hat near the edges of the office. Pushing his way through the crowd, he spots Yeosang and Hongjoong standing there too, both wearing matching reindeer headbands and seemingly deep in conversation.
“Hey guys,” he pants as he finally wiggles out from the clumps of people.
“Hey! You’re finally here!” greets Hongjoong as Seonghwa tags on with a “Hey” and Yeosang lifts his hand as a greeting. “So how are you going to–”
“Ahem.”
Hongjoong is interrupted by a voice, and Yunho looks around to see Jongho standing on a small stool with a microphone in hand, trying to get everyone’s attention. The younger is committed to his role, wearing a full Santa costume with a small Santa hat headband sitting atop his red hair, his knuckles turning white from his grip on the note cards he has in his other hand.
“The gift exchange is about to start now, so if everyone could please…”
Everyone is still talking over Jongho, and he seems to get increasingly flustered with each attempt being ignored.
“HEY!” A loud shout is heard following Jongho’s fifth try, and the mic gives a loud squeal of feedback after, submerging the room into silence.
“Okay, you can continue…” Mingi whispers to Jongho as he hands back the microphone. Jongho looks a little frazzled, but a lot more self-assured now and continues his announcement.
“The gift exchange is starting now, so if everyone could please find their gifts from the table in the Jupiter room. Also if anyone didn’t receive their gift, please come to me so we can figure something out.”
With that, the office descends into more excited chatter, everyone funneling towards one of the meeting rooms to grab their gifts. Yunho looks down at his bag and does what he does best: panic, and turning towards his friends for help.
“Guys, I still have my gift, what do I–”
“Yunho! Merry Christmas!” He’s so fucked.
“Hey Mingi! Um, Merry Christmas to you too!” Yunho replies, plastering on a smile as he turns around. He hears the three people behind him laughing quietly.
“You, uh, got your gift yet? I’m gonna go get it so…wanna come with me?” Mingi smiles toothily at him, his hands stuck in his pocket and an adorable elf hat sitting on his head.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is exactly what shouldn’t happen, and Yunho is once again thrown into the throes of panic. He makes up a quick excuse about having to use the restroom, but Mingi ends up telling him: “It’s fine, I’ll come with you and then we’ll go grab our gifts!” and his plan is completely in shambles. It’s not like he could refuse the offer anyways.
On the way to the bathroom, Yunho gathers up every bit of courage he has and pulls Mingi into the unoccupied meeting room, hoping that the loud chatter and the festive music would drown out whatever is going to happen next.
“This isn’t the bathroom—”
“Here’syourgiftI’msosorrythisprobablyisn’twhatyouwantandIdon’tknowIjustreallylikeyouandwouldyoupleasegooutwithme” Yunho blurts out, whipping out the scarf from his bag and holding it out in front of him.
“Um, whoa, sorry,” Mingi says, his hands coming up in confusion and grabbing Yunho’s wrist. “Can you repeat that?”
“I…Look, I’m your secret Santa and I really like you and I tried to make you something but it’s really bad and I don’t want to ruin your Christmas with a shitty gift and a shitty confession but I just needed to get this off my chest. So I’m sorry,” Yunho says all in one breath, bending down in a steep bow and holding out his scarf again, staring down at the tiles of the office floor. He feels like one of those anime school girls trying to give chocolate to their crush, which isn’t that far off from his situation anyways but is an embarrassing thought to have while he’s in this predicament.
“You what?” Mingi sounds shocked. Squeezing his eyes shut, Yunho stays silent and braces for the incoming rejection.
“You…like me? Why?”
A jolt runs through him when he hears Mingi’s answer, and his head pops back up, eyes embarrassingly tearing up from his nervousness.
“Um, well, you’re just really caring and handsome and cool and so hardworking. You’re just a great guy in general, like look at Jongho! You’re so attentive and amazing about it, helping him out and everything. Helping me out too, actually, so…look, I understand if you don’t like me back, but can we at least stay friends?” Yunho could feel a hot streak of embarrassment heating his body up again, and he’s almost certain he’s sweating.
“No!” Mingi yells almost, and Yunho recoils a little at the strong rejection. Seeing his reaction, Mingi begins waving his hands in front of him quickly. “I mean– not no at being your friend or anything— and not…well, I mean I like you too…” His voice becomes quieter. “I just didn’t…expect it? I mean, I thought you had a girlfriend? Boyfriend?”
“B-boyfriend? Girlfriend? What made you think that?” Yunho asks, straightening slowly with Mingi’s sudden confession still processing in his mind. “Wait? You like me ?”
“Ye-yeah? Yeah,” Mingi affirms, his cheeks being painted red and visible even under the bright white LED lights and the multitude of string lights hanging off the walls. “I like you. A lot actually.”
Yunho sniffs, feeling his eyes fill up with tears again for no reason.
“Just take my gift and let me process this,” he says, his voice a little hoarse from the multitude of emotions being shoved down his throat. “It’s really ugly, so don’t laugh.”
Mingi takes the scarf carefully from his hands, undoing the red ribbon and letting the thing unfurl. Yunho quickly wipes his eyes with his sleeves and swallows back the lump in his throat, his hands still shaky.
“Pft,” Mingi lets out a small laugh, and he immediately sends a quick glare up in the other’s direction. “I like it, it’s really cute. Is this why you said you had someone over on Saturday?”
“I didn’t lie. Yeosang was over at my place,” Yunho huffs, rubbing at his nose and staring at Mingi holding his scarf up to admire it. “But he was making these stupidly good scarfs and I had knitting stuff all over the place.”
“Wow, you learned knitting for me,” Mingi marvels, wrapping the scarf around his neck. “I’m keeping this forever.”
“Please don’t.”
“It’s mine now, you have no say over this.”
Mingi’s smile rivaled the intricate star set on the tip of the Christmas tree, and Yunho couldn’t hold back a smile of his own. He acts on some kind of holiday-infused impulse and pulls Mingi into a hug.
“If I ask you out right now, will I have a say over this then?” He asks, voice muffled as he buries his face into the scarf.
“Not if I do it first,” Mingi replies, hugging him back. He does give the best hugs. Yunho looks up to see the other’s nose scrunching as his smile grows wider than before. “Tomorrow at the movies?”
“I’ll take it if we go to the Christmas festival afterwards.”
“Deal.”